Apple and Google show off rival augmented-reality tech

Google has switched tack in its effort to popularise augmented reality on Android by moving away from a requirement for devices to be fitted with special depth sensors. All of the third-party apps have been developed since Apple unveiled its ARKit software at its WWDC developers conference 12 weeks ago. Google has named its competing software development kit ARCore. Although Google says that ARCore was "Built on" Tango, the news site Ars Technica has reported that the newer technology was created by a different team of engineers who were being given access to a lot more resources. "Apple is about to get about 500 million people into AR all in one quarter thanks to iOS 11," Robert Scoble, a mixed-reality consultant at the Transformation Group, told the BBC. "This represented a real threat to Android and Google has responded with a fairly interesting effort with ARCore."